Feedback Informed Treatment: An evidence based practice

Feedback Informed Treatment refers to the practice of providing psychotherapy treatment that is informed by repeated administrations of patient-reported treatment outcomes. Feedback Informed Treatment was recently listed by SAMHSA as a recognized evidence based practice. Feedback informed treatment is also variously referred to as outcomes informed care, outcomes management, patient focused care. All imply the use of patient self-report questionnaires, combined with feedback, to enable improvement in outcomes... from the patients' perspective.

Over the past decade, evidence from both clinical trails and large scale field trials have demonstrated that feedback informed treatment results in better outcomes. Much has been written on the subject. Following are two selected quotes that summarize the evidence.

“The combination of measuring progress (i.e. monitoring) and providing feedback consistently yields clinically significant change… Rates of deterioration are cut in half, as is drop out. Include feedback about the client’s formal assessment of the relationship and the client is less likely to deteriorate, more likely to stay longer, and twice as likely to achieve a clinically significant change.”

"Providing information about client progress to the therapist and the client improves the quality of psychotherapy, primarily by reducing the likelihood of treatment failures for clients not making expected progress. Monitoring client progress to improve the quality of services, which is often called practice-based evidence, is becoming more widely used."